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Publications (863)
Using descriptive and inferential techniques together with simplified metrics derived from the ecological discipline, we offer a long-term investigation of the Environmental Sensitive Area Index (ESAI) as a proxy of land degradation vulnerability in Italy. This assessment was specifically carried out on a decadal scale from 1960 to 2020 at the prov...
This chapter encapsulates a visionary and forward-thinking approach to sustainable urban development and ‘smart’ tourist destinations, shifting the focus from technology-centric to human-centric approaches. Drawing from the international literature, apart from exploring definitions, principles, strategies and applications of innovation employed to...
Several disciplines intended to support policymaking have emerged in economics, statistics, geography, and sociology, taking advantage of data digitization, big data, advances in national accounts, and econometric and statistical approaches and techniques. Sustainability research at the local scale is becoming a primary objective in the integration...
Being located in the middle of Southern Europe, and thus likely representing a particularly dynamic member of Mediterranean Europe, Italy has experienced a sudden increase in early desertification risk because of multiple factors of change. Long-term research initiatives have provided relatively well-known examples of the continuous assessment of t...
Climate warming, agricultural intensity, and urban growth are main forces triggering land degradation in advanced economies. Being active over different spatial and temporal scales, they usually reflect—at least indirectly—the impact of additional factors, such as wellbeing, demographic dynamics, and social development, on land quality. Using descr...
Forward-looking economic agents operating in a finite continuous geographic area choose how much to innovate at each point in time and space. Based on this assumption, the present study incorporates spatial interactions in endogenous growth models, addressing the criticism that such models are inconsistent with empirical evidence. More specifically...
Moving from conventional narratives on urbanization and suburbanization in Europe, this book provides readers with a fresh perspective on Mediterranean sprawl, exploring apparent and latent correlations with land use patterns, climate dynamics, ecological concerns, housing paradigms, and welfare regimes, societal and demographic transformations, (l...
The increasingly pragmatic interpretation of ecology, often emphasizing technological solutions and diminishing its cultural significance, starkly contrasts with a discernible lack of rigorous scientific dissemination and declining interest in fundamental scientific disciplines. This decline is evident in recent decades through a relative decrease...
The current chapter explores the spatial correlation between landscape alterations and specific ecological and socioeconomic factors in a densely populated urban area like Athens, Greece, which is experiencing rapid sprawl and significant changes in land use. Over the past two decades, artificial, bare, and burned land has seen a sharp increase, ad...
This chapter introduces a diachronic investigation of land cover changes, focusing on differentiated agro-forest matrices at the urban-rural interface in metropolitan Athens, Greece. Through a comprehensive analysis, changes in the spatial distribution of several land cover classes and their spatial relationships are examined, revealing a shift fro...
This chapter investigates land use dynamics in Attica (Greece) over a two-decade period, focusing on the concept of 'persistent landscapes.' Through a meticulous analysis of unchanged land use patches, the study reveals the resilience of certain land classes amid urbanization pressures and environmental transformations. The differential stability o...
Peri-urbanization represents a complex phenomenon intertwining socioeconomic dynamics with environmental changes, challenging traditional urban-rural distinctions and necessitating proactive and sustainable planning strategies. This study investigates the evolving landscape composition and diversity within the metropolitan area of Athens in Greece,...
Under conditions of spontaneous urban growth and deregulated planning, this study investigates the dynamics of peri-urban forest cover and its implications for land use efficiency in metropolitan Athens, a representative case of Mediterranean urban expansion. Using data spanning from 1960 to 2020, the research examines the spatial and temporal tren...
This chapter investigates the intricate relationship between land use dynamics and wildfire regimes within Mediterranean peri-urban landscapes, focusing on Attica as a case study. The study examines the influence of specific variables on fire hazard patterns, revealing distinct fire profiles at the local level. Through examination of detailed recor...
Assuming that settlement morphologies and landscape structures are the result of economic transformations, the present study illustrates a statistical framework investigating metropolitan growth due to the inherent changes in landscape configurations vis à vis socio-demographic functions. Focusing on the evolution of their spatial drivers over time...
The present study investigates territorial disparities in selected socioeconomic forces and environmental factors underlying soil degradation that may lead to early desertification processes in a dry Mediterranean region exposed to increasing human pressure. To verify if spatial disparities in land resources have increased over time, a standard app...
Urbanization is closely linked to economic development and demographic variations. However, models and processes of regional growth are very heterogeneous, highlighting the significant impact of demographic dynamics and their repercussions on land management and environmental sustainability. Differences in growth patterns and urban change in econom...
While displaying diversified economic values, agro-ecosystems remain a relevant component of rural landscapes in Southern Europe. Coupled with the expansion of ecologically fragile areas because of climate warming, intensification and simplification of rural landscapes—e.g., in lowland—represent frequent trajectories of rural land-use change (RLUC)...
Focused on examining the intricate interplay between megadevelopments and sustainability, this paper analyzes four (4) international cases. The study identifies strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats inherent in megadevelopments, understood as large-scale urban real estate projects with transformative effects on their surroundings, requi...
Being intertwined with economic development, urbanization determines the present and future development path of regions and countries. The intimate relationship between urban expansion and economic development is of particular interest in the case of large regions with complex (and mostly non-linear) socio-demographic dynamics and a relevant primac...
Expanding refugee influxes have involved a rising number of European countries in recent years. In this context, our study investigates attitudes of international protection seekers regarding their prospects of staying permanently in a transit country such as Greece. This research was based on primary statistical data collected through the dissemin...
Land degradation is a global issue with severe implications for local sustainability, regional development, and resilience of socio-environmental systems. Curbing land degradation has become a priority in international strategies and sustainable development goals. The present study examines land vulnerability to degradation and its influencing fact...
The sudden increase of residential swimming pools in fringe landscapes is reflective of urban sprawl and depends on intricate processes of social stratification and economic diversification. They are considered a dominant feature of low-density settlements expanding into rural areas. To achieve a better understanding of the spatial distribution of...
Departing from conventional narratives centered on economic stagnation and social secularism, this book offers a fresh perspective on Mediterranean urbanities. It posits their correlation with housing and welfare regimes, societal transformations, local governance structures, and deficiencies in spatial planning. The analysis within delves into the...
The present study investigates the inherent transition from compact to sprawled morphologies in European cities, focusing on metropolitan Athens, Greece. Using building permits’ data from 1981 to 2020, the research examines long-term and short-term changes in the vertical profile of central and peripheral settlements in Athens, controlling for the...
FIRE links (CA18135) originated from many efforts by a group of researchers after submitting a proposal for a COST Action. During four years, the main aim has been to develop an EU-spanning network of scientists and practitioners involved in forest fire research and land management with backgrounds such as fire dynamics, fire risk management, fire...
Assuming landscape transformations as a process fueling the local level of vulnerability to wildfires, this work investigates the spatial distribution of selected land-use classes for two years (1975 and 2018) in a metropolitan region of the Mediterranean basin (Athens, central Greece). Built-up settlements and cropland expanded moderately over tim...
Urban concentration played an important role in economic growth over the whole 20th century, being more recently less and less associated with the rate of population growth, suggesting the growing importance of other forces acting on a local scale. Large metropolitan regions, however, seem to escape from this general model, adhering to even more in...
To delineate new directions of urban development in a context of demographic shrinkage in Southern Europe, the present study illustrates a comparative analysis of the demographic balance in metropolitan Athens, Greece (1956–2021). The analysis delineates short-term and long-term dynamics of the natural population balance, considering the impact of...
A rank-size rule following Zipf’s law was tested along a complete urban–rural hierarchy in Greece using 2021 census data released at different administrative levels. Testing five econometric specifications (linear, quadratic, and cubic forms, together with refined logistic and Gompertz forms) on log-transformed population numbers, deviations from t...
The global economic and food crisis has increased the demand for land and rekindled the interest in farmland market investments worldwide. This study explores the Italian farmland market, investigating its main influencing factors from 1992 to 2019 using a spatial econometric framework. Traditional land characteristics and location‐specific agricul...
With shrinking welfare states and weak national governments, a refined understanding of the relationship between local construction markets and housing vulnerability and affordability is needed in order to investigate the consequences of economic crisis (e.g. foreclosures, non-performing mortgages, negative equity, homelessness) and the associated...
A comprehensive understanding of mechanisms underlying metropolitan growth provides a more general contribution to the clarification of economic and social development processes on a local and regional scale. Thus, placing the territory at the center of the debate on sustainable, spatially balanced, socially cohesive, and environmentally friendly m...
Urban settlements have globally expanded into rural land. The present work focused on the Athens' metropolitan region, the capital of Greece, discussing the potential role of a typical Mediterranean landscape dominated by olive groves, in urban containment and peri-urban conservation of biodiversity and local traditions. Having a great cultural, cu...
Settlement models and urban growth are strictly interconnected issues. The present contribution scrutinizes the intimate relationship between these two dimensions of regional development, considering the implications of sustainable land management and suggesting a logical framework to understand the long-term evolution of economic systems and human...
Urban concentration played an important role in economic growth over the whole 20th century, being more recently less and less associated with the rate of population growth, suggesting the growing importance of other forces acting on a local scale. Large metropolitan regions, however, seem to escape from this general model, adhering to even more in...
Urbanization is one of the crucial issues of global change and, with increasing frequency, we observe a remarkable correlation between socioeconomic changes and urban land use and landscape modifications. Urban expansion pattern is getting increasingly dispersed and fragmented. Topography and natural amenities contribute to shape the territorial de...
Verifying the intrinsic stability of demographic processes over time and space is a pivotal task from both science and policy perspectives. Compared with other regions of the old continent, a latent peculiarity of demographic systems in Southern Europe is their persistent heterogeneity over space, especially observed across metropolitan regions. ‘C...
Investigating processes of change in regional spatial structures is a relevant issue in the identification of monocentric, polycentric and scattered urban models. This work proposes an empirical framework referring to complex systems’ theory and based on a diachronic analysis of the spatial structure of built-up parcels assessing metropolitan trans...
Seasonal hunger is the most common food insecurity experience for millions of small dryland farmers. This study tests the relationships between food insecurity, farm forests, and biomass poverty using a longitudinal dataset from the Amhara region of Ethiopia. These data form part of the Ethiopia Socioeconomic Survey, which collected panel data over...
It is well-known that rural-urban patterns help to capture socioeconomic interactions between different settlement forms. The sustainability challenge requires to consider the evolution of these patterns as a reliable indicator of the dynamics of land use change and potential land degradation processes occurred in a time frame. In this research, by...
The present study delves into the intricate interplay between the historical legacies, contemporary adaptations, and future aspirations of Southern European cities, metropolises, and urban agglomerations as Mediterranean societies navigate the evolving global landscape. The analysis challenges the conventional notion of 'modernity' as a specific Me...
Testing density-dependence and path-dependence in long-term population dynamics under differentiated local contexts contributes to delineate the changing role of socioeconomic forces at the base of regional disparities. Despite a millenary settlement history, such issue has been rarely investigated in Europe, and especially in highly divided countr...
Regional variability in the spatial distribution of resident population and across-country density divides have consolidated heterogeneous demographic patterns at the base of modern urban systems in Europe. Although economic, historical, institutional, and cultural factors have demonstrated to affect the spatial distribution of resident population,...
Despite a long settlement history, empirical investigations of the role of path dependency in the long-term evolution of human populations are scarce in Europe, and especially in the Mediterranean countries. Using spatially explicit econometric techniques, our study discusses the empirical evidence stemming from a quantitative analysis of the spati...
Amidst growing concerns about the impact of agriculture on the environment, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has been overhauled to prioritize sustainable rural development in European agriculture. Based on this line of thought, the present contribution delves into the details of the CAP's shift, focusing on the main environmental concerns face...
In the current accelerated process of global warming, forest conservation is becoming more difficult to address in developing countries, where woodlands are often fueling the illegal economy. In Colombia, the issue of narcodeforestation is of great concern, because of the ramification of narcoactivities that are affecting forests, such as agribusin...
Assuming a non-neutral impact of space, an explicit assessment of metropolitan hierarchies based on local regression models produces a refined description of population settlement patterns and processes over time. We used Geographically Weighted Regressions (GWR) to provide an enriched interpretation of the density gradient in Greece, estimating a...
Land imperviousness reflects settlement growth and urban sprawl. Grounded on a comparative approach, a set of multidimensional statistical techniques were adopted here to quantify the evolution of land imperviousness from Copernicus High-Resolution Layers (HRLs) in a representative case study of Southern Europe (Athens, Greece). A two-way data matr...
Accurate forest assessment is essential to detect and tackle deforestation, especially in emerging economies. In Colombia, three different geo-spatial data sources are available for forest monitoring: the European Space Agency (ESA), the Institute for Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (IDEAM), and the Global Forest Change Data (GFCD)...
European cities have experienced rapid (and often conflicting) transformations that include, inter alia, the environment, the economy, society, climate change, and access to affordable housing, with implications for their future development. In order to address such issues, assessing the current situation of European metropolises is crucial to unde...
A rising number and variety of hazards has threatened local communities, possibly leading to disasters that are cause of important (human and economic) losses across regions and countries. As a consequence, both preparedness and management of hazard risk emerged as relevant issues in advanced economies. The present study proposes an original framew...
Forest ecosystems are increasingly subject to disturbances, such as extreme (climate) events, fires and pathological outbreaks, which exert significant (and still poorly quantified) economic impacts, despite their intrinsic resilience. How forest management addresses these challenges will have profound effects on human health, environmental diversi...
The present study identifies economic, political, and institutional variables that influence the distribution of personal incomes in the Eurozone countries facing severe fiscal imbalances, namely Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. Crucially, this paper is the first to investigate the effect of the corrective arm of the Stability and Growth Pact, t...
In light of global change, research on ecosystem dynamics and the related environmental policies are increasingly required to face with the inherent polarization in areas with low and high human pressure. Differential levels of human pressure are hypothesized to reflect development paths toward ecological stability of local systems vis à vis socioe...
A short-term issue that has been occasionally investigated in the current literature is if (and, eventually, how) population dynamics (directly or indirectly) driven by COVID-19 pandemic have contributed to enlarge regional divides in specific demographic processes and dimensions. To verify this assumption, our study run an exploratory multivariate...
Migration processes pose important social problems and demand appropriate integration policies. With this perspective in mind, the present study investigates native residents' opinion on the contribution of immigrants to urban economy in Athens, Greece, using a self-reported questionnaire submitted to a convenience sample of 446 native residents 18...
The spatial concentration of human populations is a dynamic attribute of demographic systems and a multifaceted research dimension intrinsically dependent on settlement patterns and diverging (individual) geographies. An extensive literature dealing with the quantitative assessment of this demographic aspect has proposed several methodologies and a...
The present study investigates long-term urbanization and suburbanization trends in a divided region of Mediterranean Europe (Attica, Greece). A time series (1965–2008) dynamic factor analysis of 14 indicators that reflect different aspects of metropolitan growth, allowed estimating the impact of economic expansion and social change on the local de...
Forest management is a complex topic at the interface between sustainability and the resilience of socioeconomic and environmental systems. The influence of market forces, supranational, country and regional policies, as well as climate change, on forest goods and services, is expected to increase in the near future. Such a complex interplay betwee...